Microsoft drops Xbox Music branding in favor of Groove

Microsoft’s rebranding of its music and video properties continues as the Redmond-based company is dropping the Xbox Music moniker in favor of Groove.

Brandon LeBlanc, resident Microsoft blogger, described the name change as the evolution of its Xbox Music experience. Why the name Groove? Because it describes what people feel and do with music, LeBlanc explained.

Or as Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore correctly points out on Twitter, people without an Xbox (logically) assumed that Xbox Music wasn’t available to them.

Microsoft doesn’t exactly have the best track record when it comes to its music products. The company was late to the game with its Zune line of portable music players and despite its best efforts, the idea of Xbox as an entertainment brand never really took root.

Heck, even the renaming to Groove isn’t without confusion. In its initial announcement, Microsoft referred to the new name as Groove Music. The company has since said this was a mistake and the service is simply known as Groove. As of writing, however, one of the screenshots on the blog post (embedded above) announcing the change still shows Groove Music.

To make matters even more confusing, there’s already an app called Groove for iOS and Windows Phone from Canadian-based company Zikera. Some are speculating that Microsoft may have purchased the smaller start-up but not announcing it with the name change makes that scenario seem a little less likely.

Curiously enough, just like Surface, Microsoft has used the Groove branding before. As Ars reminds us, Microsoft bought software maker Groove Networks in 2005 to gain access to Groove, a product which Microsoft ultimately renamed to SharePoint Workspace.

Everyone with an existing subscription to Xbox Music will migrate over, hopefully without issue.